Barrie Ho Ltd, Hong Kong, China, Hong Kong

Architecture without Adjectives

The dilemma of contemporary Asian architecture confronting the asian culture and western modernity

The dilemmas of contemporary Asian architects are found in the confrontation of the invasion of western architectural superpowers to their architectural labels in Asia combined with the ambiguity of Asian architects' to re-defining the continuation between Asian culture and modernity.

Inspired by the recent interview of B.V. Doshi, this project is an attempt to re-interpret "Architecture without Adjectives" in Asia. As the Global Economy Centre has moved to mainland China, western provocative architectural scenes have also flooded into the Asian region whilst the Asian investors and decision makers are extremely superstitious on the provocative manifestation of "Super-Labels". Such “Architectural Super-labels" are occupying different corners of Asia intensifying the phenomenon of Architectural labelism. Eventually, "Architectural Form never follows Function," nor “Function follows Form” but "Architectural Form follows Fashion & Labels without any functions!"

These Architectural Labels with exaggerated Adjectives have carried no response on native cultural & site context, but creating orthodox "Visual Stimulations" purely aim at hitting the press headlines. These labels killed the city and its surrounding architecture like a virus, and creating purely "Eye-catching & Flashy Objects" on the streets provoking unnecessary controversy. Unlike the architectural superpowers generating their “Architectural Labelism” by provocative adjectives, the projects attached are the “Architecture without Adjectives” quietly erected in different corners of Asia, confronting the ambiguity alone.